With the first half of the Eastern 1A schedule complete, the McDermitt High School girls basketball team is in good shape to take the No. 1 seed into the Northern 1A Regional Tournament next month in Reno.
The Lady Bulldogs have a two-game lead over rivals Wells, Eureka and Owyhee. McDermitt moved to 4-0 in league play with a 72-71 overtime victory at Eureka on Friday, Jan. 19.
McDermitt trailed 21-15 after eight minutes of play but gave up a combined 20 points in the next two quarters. The Lady Bulldogs rallied in the second quarter with a 19-10 spurt to go in front 34-31 at halftime. The contest would remain close from there, with the teams trading buckets the rest of the way.
After a relatively high-scoring first half, the defenses took over in the third quarter. The Vandals closed the gap to one point at 42-41 after holding the Lady Bulldogs to eight points out of the break.
Neither team could pull away in the fourth quarter, with each squad having a chance to win the contest. Eureka equaled its total from the second and third quarters combined to tie the game at 61 and send it into overtime.
The extra period was not much different from regulation, with McDermitt outscoring Eureka 11-10 to earn the road victory and remain undefeated in league play.
Precious Masters paced McDermitt with 31 points on the night to go with seven rebounds, four assists and four steals. However, she was not the leading scorer on the night, as Eureka’s Morgan Thomas netted 40 points in the loss.
The Lady Bulldogs’ Morissa Bitt added 16 points and was 10-of-11 from the free throw line. As a team, McDermitt was 15-of-20 from the charity stripe. Bitt finished with a double-double, grabbing a team-high 13 rebounds. She also had two assists and two steals.
Shania Lenoir was the third McDermitt player to score in double figures, she finished with 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting. Lenoir also had six rebounds. Jasmine Northrup had five points before fouling out and Katie Crutcher and Adrie Smart each had four points. Smart contributed eight rebounds and six assists.
McDermitt closed out its road trip on Friday at Wells. The results were not available at press time. That was the only game of the week for the Lady Bulldogs, since Jackpot did put a team on the court this year.
McDermitt was scheduled to host Carlin on Friday, Feb. 2, but the Railroaders have forfeited their last three games. The Lady Bulldogs host Owyhee on Saturday, Feb. 3, at 1 p.m.
